Green Sand Beach, Hawaii – ND filters

8 Comments

The access to Papakolea Beach consisted of a maze of badly rutted vehicle tracks, along the coast, alternatively sandy and rocky. A four wheel drive was definitively necessary. Hiking would have been 6mi round-trip with no shade.

Papakolea Bay is a collapsed cinder cone. Olivine crystals within the cone give the beach its green color. There are only two such beaches in the US (the other is in Guam).

I tried different exposure times. The two images above were shot with just a polarizing filter, resulting in fast exposure times (1/125s and 1/50s respectively).

Yes, the Big Stopper yields an image with a blue cast, at least when used in AWB. I have reduced it a bit but not eliminated it entirely (although it would be a single eyedropper click on the ocean foam) because we are used to associate long exposures with dawn/dusk, which produces that kind of WB. My other filter is the Hi-Tech 4 inch square which fits in the same holder as the Lee.

I like that your imagery is not necessarily just about chasing down pretty pictures but that you seek out subject matter that photographers with a less developed eye might pass up. I prefer #3 over #4, but also like #5 and #6 especially since it breaks the rule.

Thanks David for the kind words. Indeed I am less after the “epic” shot than capturing some mood and truth about the places I am fortunate to visit, even if this results in images that can sometimes appear unassuming.

QT Luong is a full-time photographer and author with a broad range of work on natural and cultural landscapes, noted for being the first to photograph each of the 59 US National Parks - in large format, the subject of Treasured Lands, winner of six national book awards.